Martin O'Neill has defended Fabio Capello's decision to give another England call-up to Gabriel Agbonlahor despite his current goal drought.Aston Villa frontman Agbonlahor was denied the chance to make his senior England breakthrough against Switzerland at Wembley last month because of a hamstring injury.

Now he has been named in the provisional squad to face France in Paris on Wednesday even though he is still searching for his first goal of 2008, and has gone 10 matches since he last found the net.

But O'Neill claimed the Villa Academy product has a lot more to his game than just goal-scoring ahead of Saturday's home Premier League clash with Sunderland.

O'Neill said: "I am pleased for Gabby to get another call-up by England. He was disappointed to have to pull out through injury last time but, if he gets on, I hope he does well.

"Am I surprised he is in the squad given his lack of goals? No. His current form is very good and he is not just about scoring.

"He contributes in so many ways for us and the England manager would have seen that.

"Only a fortnight ago he was magnificent against Arsenal. His contribution to us is very big.

"Obviously, he would like to score a couple of goals and, perhaps if he had put one in the net recently, maybe he would have scored against Portsmouth.

"But I am less concerned than perhaps he is. I would think he should be able to take England in his stride. I don't think he will be overawed. It is not a problem."

O'Neill also insisted that he is happy with the form of Villa's on-loan goalkeeper Scott Carson amidst speculation that he will be making a bid to sign Tottenham's Paul Robinson in the summer.

Carson, who is hoping to have recovered from a swollen knee which forced him to miss training on Friday, was clearly at fault with Portsmouth's opening goal in their 2-0 win over Villa last weekend with his positional play.

But O'Neill insisted the 22-year-old would play if he is sufficiently fit against the Black Cats.

O'Neill said: "Scott's form is not a concern. I am 100 per cent happy with him. I'd like everyone to play brilliantly every week.

"It is only a fortnight ago that he made an outstanding save against Arsenal. I am perfectly happy with him. If he recovers from his knee injury, he will play. That's all I can say."

O'Neill knows Villa have to get back to winning ways sooner rather than later if they are to retain any hope of securing a European spot.

He added: "I still believe we are in the mix but it's a case of getting back to winning matches and the Sunderland game is a big one for us now.

"This is no time to be moping or moaning. We have to get on with it and start winning again.

"If we win this game, we will be right back in the hunt. It would be pointless to come this far and have done so well and then down tools. It would be just too easy to give up.

"We have got to catch up again and I believe we can do that because of the ability in the side. We've now got to show real resilience and real character. We can pull this around.

"We are not good enough to win when we are below our best and we've mentioned that in the dressing room. Hopefully at some stage we will be."

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